Baby walkers are widely used for accelerating the development of walking skills in babies and young children. In general, a baby walker includes a wheeled or castered frame or chassis fitted with a seat suspended or affixed thereto. The seat is typically oriented in a centered position relative to the wheels or casters to maximize the stability of the occupied walker, and includes openings through which the baby's legs are extended to enable foot contact with the floor and propulsion of the walker. Such baby walkers often include a partial body structure having tray-like surfaces extending to the front and around the sides and back of the seat to provide sufficient space and range to accommodate the baby's feeding utensils, toys, and the like.
In use, it has been observed that some babies can propel such walkers at unexpectedly rapid speeds in an uncontrolled manner away from a relatively secure environment and toward staircases, exposed structural elements, and other potentially hazardous surroundings or objects. Based on a strong concern surrounding this issue of safety, at least one Western country has outlawed the use of such untethered baby walkers as a result of numerous incidents which have resulted in severe injury and even death to some baby walker occupants.
Heretofore, a tethered baby walker which enables a relatively broad and adjustable range of travel has not been successfully achieved. For example, a tethered baby walker disclosed in U.S. Design Pat. No. D119,382 provides a baby walker which is limited to travel about a fulcrum at a fixed radius defined by the length of a flexible tether, such as a rope. Also, the walker is free to rotate completely about the fulcrum without any angular limitation, thereby limiting its effective use in smaller spaces a part of which may contain hazardous regions.
Another baby walker disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,297,800 discloses a pole-type base permanently affixed to a floor and ceiling of the room in which the walker is to be used. A support arm extends horizontally from the upper portion of the pole. A basket in which the baby is supported is suspended from a coil spring which is affixed to and translatable along the length of the support arm. Mobility of the baby when secured within the basket is limited to the extent of the length of the support arm, in addition to any limited extension of the coil spring. One problem to this walker is that a relatively permanent installation is required, thereby eliminating desired portability and use at another location. Another problem is uncontrolled recoil of the spring after extension. This apparatus also shares with the previously described apparatus of the prior art the problem of an absence of any provision for limiting angular excursions of the walker as may be required by the constraints and hazards of a particular environment.
Yet another walker device, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,721,437, provides a walking trainer affixed to a portable vertical frame member. This walking trainer includes a castered frame having a horizontal frame member to which a harness is affixed. Although this walker is relatively portable by virtue of its free-standing castered frame, such apparatus is not only relatively large and ungainly thereby making it impractical for use in all but relatively large spaces, but also does not solve the safety issue of preventing uncontrolled access to potentially dangerous locations such as the top landings of staircases and the like.
Yet another problem with baby walkers of the prior art is the relatively large number of such units in current use which have no tethering or other restraint apparatus, thereby rendering them unsafe or even unlawful and imposing a large financial burden related to the abandonment and replacement of those obsolete units with walkers meeting new legal guidelines.